Ecoinometrics - Dollar whales

How rich are the Bitcoin whales?

When you look at on-chain data the most common thing to do is to talk about native units. After all one BTC equals one BTC. 

But in fiat terms those quantities we are reporting on can swing pretty wildly from one year to the next.

An example of that is the amount of money controlled by the whales. So how is their wealth fluctuating in dollar terms?

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Dollar whales

What matters most, the amount of Bitcoins you control or the US$ value it represents? 

I suppose it depends on why you are into the space. 

If you are purely an investor then you might not care much about Bitcoin as a payment network. Maybe for you it is just another asset that you can own and expect some returns (in US$). A famous crook who used to operate a three letters international exchange Ponzi scheme once said that he didn’t care much about Bitcoin, if he could make as much money trading oranges he would trade oranges. 

Now that’s fair enough. When you put your money on the SP500 you don’t do it because you have a particular interest for the 500 companies composing the index. You do it because that’s a good way to put your cash to work and generate more cash.

If you are coming to Bitcoin from the side of sound money, decentralized systems and the will to change the global financial system your perspective might be a bit different. In that case you are probably playing the very long game hoping that Bitcoin will finally reach the state where it becomes a globally dominant store of value integrated to the economy. 

When you think like that you are more likely to think like a land owner. Like land, Bitcoin is a scarce resource capped to a finite amount. Which means the fraction of the total amount that you control really matters if your goal is to become a big player.